Hannah Armstrong

    I wrote him a letter asking him for old times, sake
    To discharge my sick boy from the army;
    But maybe he couldn't read it.
    Then I went to town and had James Garber,
    Who wrote beautifully, write him a letter.
    But maybe that was lost in the mails.
    So I traveled all the way to Washington.
    I was more than an hour finding the White House.
    And when I found it they turned me away,
    Hiding their smiles.
    Then I thought: "Oh, well, he ain't the same as when I boarded him
    And he and my husband worked together
    And all of us called him Abe, there in Menard."
    As a last attempt I turned to a guard and said:
    "Please say it's old Aunt Hannah Armstrong
    From Illinois, come to see him about her sick boy
    In the army."
    Well, just in a moment they let me in!
    And when he saw me he broke in a laugh,
    And dropped his business as president,
    And wrote in his own hand Doug's discharge,
    Talking the while of the early days,
    And telling stories.